Newbie: NetApp FAS920C Filer and DS14MK2 Shelves

[trmg]

Hey Everyone,

I work for a school district and an organization recently donated two NetApp FAS920C filers and a half a dozen DS14MK2 disk shelves.

I'm very tech savy, but I have absolutely zero experience with NAS/SAN equipment of this magnitude and I've been given the task of making it work!

Ideally, we're going to set up one filer and 3 disk shelves at one site, and set up the other filer and 3 disk shelves at another site across town. We're not looking for controller redudancy, but we'd like to be able to mirror the data on one set with the other. We're going to use the equipment to replace our current tape backup solution.

Anywho...are there any good resources out there to point one to...some NetApp 101 sites? haha.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated!

 

[trmg]

I suppose my first question would be, how do I physically connect everything together?

On the disk shelves, it looks like all of the fibre channel ports are labeled "out" and all of the fiber ports are labeled "in". Can I simply chain the disk shelves using fiber, or do they need to be connected with both fiber and fibre channel?

 

[trmg]

^ I failed to mention that the "fibre channel" ports look to be copper based.

So, with that, how would one go from "in" to "out" if they're different physical medium?

I suppose I should wait for a response now...:-D

 

[rclarke250]

First you should get some training from the netapp site,and also setup a now account. Second, san/nas is not a replacement for tape backup. Third, there should be SFP connectors to go from Fibre to copper. If they included the cables, you should have a fibre on one side plugged into a SFP, and yes you daisy chain. but administration of these boxes isn't something you will get from going to a website forum, you need to get into an admin class from netapp.

Before you ask, no, I do not administer these boxes, I am a TPM, and do maintenance,and warranty work for Netapp.

 

[trmg]

The donor did not give us any cables what-so-ever. I take that back, they gave us one single cable and it is what looks like a copper Fibre Channel cable, copper on both ends. Apparently when the disk chassis were unpacked, two of them were connected together with this cable...out to out.

You're saying that the copper based "out" should in fact connect to the fiber based "in" using a cable that can convert the copper to fiber?

I'm currently in the process of creating an account on NetApp's site. I certainly wasn't expecting any magical knowledge from this forum...just a place to start .

 

[rclarke250]

the port needs a sfp Gbic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SFP-side.jpg

Than you can use fibre cables. Out of the filer to in on shelf 1,shelf 1 out to shelf 2 in, and so forth.

 

[trmg]

Hmm. On these disk shelves, it doesn't look like the interfaces are removable.

I know what you're talking about, as 2 of the six shelves that were donated simply take GBICs...but these seem fixed.

I'll have to double-check Monday AM. I may be mistaken. If I am, whoo-hoo! :-D

 

[xmsre]

On the back of the controller, you'll see some orange ports that take GBICs, 0a, 0b, 0c, and 0d. On each shelf, you'll have upper and lower modules, both with two connections, in the center of the back of the shelf. Each module has an "in" and an "out".

For cables, there are two ways to go. For the first you will need GBICs and the oragne fibre cables. you put the GBICs in the in and out slots and in two of the slots on your controller. You would need two for the controller, and four for each shelf. Fibre goes between the GBICs in two loops; 0a to lower in shelf 1, lower out shelf 1 to lower in shelf 2, lower out shelf 2 to lower in shelf 3. Ob goes to upper in shelf 1. Upper out shelf on to upper in shelf 2, upper out shelf 2 to upper in shelf 3. The Idea is to have two redundant loops.

The other way to go with cables is the short (about a foot long) shelf to shelf copper cables. If you use these cables, the ends slide right into the connectors without a need for GBICs. You would wire them the same way as two redundant loops.

XMSRE

 

[trmg]

I suppose I should update this thread...

The disk shelves came with a mix of ESH and ESH2 interface modules. I was able to move things around enough to get three disk shelves up and running, although they're only connected via a single loop. Would the second loop help performance wise, or is it simply for redundancy?

The donor is looking in their warehouse to see if they can give us additional ESH2 interface modules since the copper interconnect cables are hard to find (according to them, anyway).

The only true stumbling block we are at is software licensing. I talked to a public sector sales rep (I work for a school district) at NetApp and he wasn't able to help since the filers have reached "end of life".

The donor is looking for the licenses associated with these filers...but if they can't provide us with that, are we SOL?

 

[theravager]

what licenses do you currently have on your system?

 

[RMGBELGIUM]

No need to add second loop if you don't experience loop saturation.
For the copper cables, perhaps have a look on ebay
With regards to licenses, you're screwed indeed if you don't get any licenses, as by default nothing is licensed after an clean setup.

rgds,

R.

NetApp Certified NCDA/NCIE-SAN